WizardBlack

Oh yeah. Hook a brother up. Can you PM me a cost for HX35/HY35? TIA Mark

I'd suspect the fact that S30's are lighter, there is a good supply of aftermarket panels for them and the S130 powertrain is a virtual dropin that S130 panels are a ways off. Unless, of course, S30's start to get very scarce for the demand. Mark

They sell a special screw-on fitting for a cutoff tool at your local auto parts store. It is essentially a rubber pad with a bunch of rubber fingers on it. It will strip the paint off (or old dried gasket material) without doing much to the aluminum of the head. Makes for a nice pretty "brushed" finish to put up to your gaskets. Mark

LOL! Welcome to the club!

Ooops, sorry. What I meant was the OP is experiencing surge. Your description sounds like a tad bit of backspin from BOV flutter. It doesn't actually go so far as to spin backwards with BOV flutter but it does slow it down some and make noise of course.

Yeah, I found that after the fact. Oh well. I am sure to use it in the future. I ended up getting a Black Dragon Auto fender (Taiwanese knockoff). I really want to get into the areas prone to rust and get things POR-15'ed to halt the "invasion". One thing I noticed is that the bottom portion of the fenders are not supported very well. The very bottom where it bolts on is only supported on the back half with the front half hanging in the air, so to speak. The natural tendency of this area to get attacked by rust only adds to the stress and you end up with ripped up fenders. Quite strange.

Fuel pump whining could be an aftermarket pump such as the Walbro. It'll whine quite loudly. Fear not on the diagnosis. I just got my first S30 and I had to tow it home. It turned out the AFM had several TEASPOONS of water in it. I cleaned it out and tuned the AFM a bit and now it works quite well. Read the bible. It'll tell you how to get through things quite quickly as long as you can use a multimeter. Stay patient; that's going to save you a lot of grief. These cars are very simple as far as EFI goes.

Fair enough. I started by backing the OP up and letting him/her know I am in the same boat.

Thank you for the sage advice. I am totally with you on that. The fact of the matter is, I have been one of the 'elders' so to speak on quite a few forums before; sometimes it's hard to find info to get going. Once I am rolling, it is much easier to seek out information on the specific things I run across as I move forward. In the vein of specific questions, then. I will tell you that I have an N42/N47 setup with dished pistons, etc. I already have a Megasquirt II 3.0 on the way and I am searching through their forums to learn about 36-1 wheels and the EDIS system as it pertains to the L28. I found a turbo manifold and I am searching for the right HX35 or preferably HY35 to feed it. The rest of piping and all that crap I can certainly fab up myself. The big question is, what can the block and crank withstand? Who is making SERIOUS power? I know 2.8L should be able to belt out 500 whp or more on 93 octane pump providing the headwork is there, etc. I am concerned that perhaps this platform isn't capable of supporting this reliably. Maybe too few feel that is NOT too much for a street car. I personally find it's easy to dial boost down for certain situations. Thanks for everyone's patience and understanding with the 'noobs'. Mark

What you are describing there is backspin. This is due to the fact that your BOV is not sensitive enough to open with that amount of pressure differential. You are, in effect, running without a BOV for that SPECIFIC circumstance; thus the flutter. What the OP is describing is SURGE which is an entirely different animal. His turbo is just too big for the application. He is off the left side of the compressor map. You can only eliminate that by putting a smaller hotside on the turbo. The engine is demanding too LITTLE air for that pressure ratio and shaft speed. It will damage a turbo much faster than the "stiff BOV spring" thing.

Ah thank you! Just what I was looking for. Now I need to hunt down a manifold (mercilessly) and beat it into submission with a T3/T4 and a Megasquirt!

So the ports on a round port head from a later N/A (N47 head) match up with the exhaust manifold from a turbo 81 ~ 83 280ZX?

As a new guy myself, I understand a bit of the frustration. You all say "swap" or "search", but when you search, you see a mountain of threads that say the same thing! This vehicle is obviously older and many of the forums have years and years of threads piled up where the people talking already knew the basics. It can be hard to find a thread that actually explains some of this if it isn't in an FAQ or sticky. I suggest you search the FAQ's and see if anyone tells you what's possible and how to do it on turbo'ing an L42 block (and not just going to a pick and pull for an F54, etc.). That isn't always an option for everyone and it isn't getting any easier as people hoard blocks, parts cars, etc. I don't mean to come across harsh, but I have become a respected "veteran" of at least half a dozen different types of cars and some of the forums for older cars had the same issue. Many of the veterans didn't realize just how old the threads were that ACTUALLY had the info and not just the "use the search button" response. There is a lot that can be found using the search and I have been mining that resource, but there are lots of useless threads that seem promising and they all end up with the "search" response. Of course there are lazy people and they need that answer, but I couldn't find much on turbo'ing the non-turbo block myself either. Please don't me because I am NOT trying to .

Pinhole "through" rust spots around the rim, lots of waves in metal from a crude temporary repair and the very bottom ~10" length has a vertical "tear" in the metal about 6 inches long. Ie., it's a toast fender.

Would you mind telling a guy who is a nooblet to old fairlady's what duckbill spoiler that is? Great looking car, BTW. EDIT: Also, I know sheets of carbon are pretty easy to make by comparison. I also know that some people use an adhesive method to replace their floorpans. Any thoughts on a set of floorpans made of THICK carbon fiber that is bonded in; perhaps with a few stainless steel "spines" for extra rigidity? Carbon fenders? Headlight buckets? Oh my....

LOL, true, but I'd just be happy to find a fender (for example) that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to fix up my 280Z.

Could there possibly be a list of body part crossovers for the S30 (and maybe what you could swipe from the 280ZX) for those guys new to the cars and trying to figure what cars in a junkyard might be a potential donor for the piece they are looking for? For example, I need a driver's fender and wanted to know if the later S130 fenders were the same, etc. Thanks, Mark

Sorry to bring an old topic up but there is another thing I'd like to explain about individual cylinder abnormalities and what you won't find on a wideband. If a single cylinder isn't flowing the same amount of air or fuel or running the same timing, etc. it will be almost impossible to catch it. Here is a somewhat dramatized example of what can happen; I've seen it multiple times in real life: Actual Individual Air/Fuel Ratios at WOT on Boost: Cyl 1: 11.3:1 Cyl 2: 11.3:1 Cyl 3: 11.2:1 Cyl 4: 11.3:1 Cyl 5: 11.2:1 Cyl 6: 13.5:1 Reading From Wideband during this period will be ~11.8:1. You would be tuning for 11.8 and that's what you show on the wideband but an individual cylinder is not running right. The easiest way to catch this is with individual EGT probes. Obviously very few cars run this other than OEM test engines and tune shop test cars. The next best thing is to run an EGT gauge in the one cylinder you know the particular engine runs the hottest; ie., the sixth cylinder in the L28, evidently. From past experience, I had 4G63's and they liked to suck the fuel rails dry so you always used the EGT probe in the cylinder farthest from the fuel pump. Mark

Roll cage padding help in an actual collision? LOL I seriously doubt it. It will do nothing more than slight dings when being thrown around while the car is buffeted or rolled. If you actually hit the bar, you won't hardly notice the difference. On a side note, the welder is absolutely critical to make the cage a device of safety and not more risk. I have seen homologated cages break apart in a crash and the ragged pointy end of one piece of the cage actually pierced the driver and made a nice sloppy 2" diameter hole through the person's body in several spots.

Not really sure what you mean by that. I wasn't flinging insults at anyone; just my general view of the most common reason that ppl don't like the AEM; the drivability tuning. Obviously it isn't, so obviously that tuner (you I suppose?) isn't a hobbyist. I certainly don't think that only hobbyists don't like the AEM. I know many tuners that either hate or love the AEM.

Yeah, I'd definitely get the A1000 and then you have some more room to grow if need be.

I am definitely planning to go turbo and therefore bigger injectors, etc. I take it that that will help it idle better or have more finite fuel control, etc? Are any of them moving towards possibly being sequential? Mark

You need a BOV upstream of the MAF, but obviously this only works with blowthrough. If the MAF is pullthrough, you will need a recirc valve (BOV being recirculated).

You may get the MAF to read the extra air for turbo, but it won't enrich properly, NOR will it retard properly. You can change injectors (assuming same impedance and plug and body type) only if you can rescale the signal through some means or reflash your computer. NEVER rely on the O2 to somehow "adjust" for different sized injectors. More recent computers will have to drastically adjust with their long term adjustments stored in memory. Not a good idea, even though I have seen one or two peeps do it with small changes in injector size. If your MAF is maxed and your injectors are maxed, do something to increase both at teh same time. Then, the only issue you will still have is ignition timing being higher for the same amount of air for the reduced signal to the ECU. You can usually get away with leaving the ignition timing issue along IF the car was already turbocharged from teh factory. Mark

Dude, AEM is a standalone. I am sure you know that; must've mistyped or meant getting a wolf. AEM is a very nice one, IMHO. Many peeps say they hate the AEM because they can't get the drivability right. It's not for a hobbyist tuner to start out on unless they are willing to learn and deal with some of that. That being said, one of AEM's biggest issues is drivability and funky response to adjusting the maps. I am factory trained on the AEM and have tuned quite a few others. I wouldn't hesitate to get an AEM, but the Wolf definitely looks quite impressive. It appears to have some nice features similar to the MoTeC. I'd say if you can get an AEM that is drop in, do it. Otherwise get the Wolf if it's around the same price.